A four-year-old white rhino named Houdini is breathing freely again after a team of veterinary specialists at Onderstepoort performed a groundbreaking, nearly six-hour surgery to remove a life-threatening nasal obstruction caused by a past poaching injury.

The four-year-old white rhino bull Houdini had a breath of life after performing fully invasive surgery for more than five hours to remove a severe obstruction from his nasal passage.

Years ago, Houdini was shot through the nose in a brutal poaching incident. He survived the trauma and began his recovery at The Rhino Orphanage in Limpopo under the watchful care of veterinarian Dr Pierre Bester.

Despite healing well at first, the team noticed something troubling months later – Houdini was struggling to breathe through one of his nostrils. Over time, the problem worsened.

Concerned, Dr Bester performed a nasal endoscopy and found pink-coloured tissue obstructing the entire right nasal passage.

“This is a major problem for rhinos. Unlike humans, they can breathe only through their nose. Also, their sense of smell plays a vital role in their interaction with the environment. For Houdini, the obstruction didn’t just threaten his ability to breathe – it threatened his quality of life. So it was crucial that we attempt to correct the nasal passage.”

@rekordpretoria Watch: Groundbreaking surgery saves injured white rhino at Onderstepoort Vet Read more here: https://www.citizen.co.za/rekord/news-headlines/2025/05/23/watch-groundbreaking-surgery-saves-injured-white-rhino-at-onderstepoort-vet/ #rhinopoaching #rescue #pretoria #onderstepoortveterinaryacademichospital ♬ original sound – rekordpretoria

This first-of-its-kind procedure may pave the way for future wildlife medical breakthroughs.

Houdini spent a few days recovering from the long CT scan procedure in the wildlife clinic’s specialised bomas. Recovery was vital to ensure that he was in the best shape for the surgery, which was expected to take several hours. Once Houdini was deemed fit and recovered, specialist wildlife veterinarian Dr Jacques O’Dell administered a combination of anaesthetic drugs before the rhino was “walked” to the theatre complex.

Performing surgery on a white rhino is always a daunting task, especially because of the anaesthetic risks involved.

“We know that anaesthesia that lasts for longer than two hours in horses increases the risk of mortality two-fold, with the risk doubling for every subsequent hour,” said Dr Abdur Kadwa, a specialist veterinary anaesthesiologist at the faculty who led the anaesthetics team during the procedure.

“These risks stem from the rhino’s own body weight compressing blood supply to vital organs and muscles, so we had to strike a delicate balance between ensuring the stability of his blood pressure and keeping a wild animal safely asleep and pain-free.”

Ironically, the rhino had to undergo a rhinotomy (cutting into the nasal cavity), a procedure that could cause significant bleeding.

“Unfortunately, no fresh whole blood that is typed and matched was available, so we employed a technique called haemodilution,” Dr Kadwa says.

He explained that haemodilution involves collecting a significant proportion of the patient’s own blood, which was then replaced by intravenous fluids. “So if Houdini bled, he would have lost a smaller proportion of actual blood and have had his own blood for transfusion, negating the risks of transfusion reactions,” Dr Kadwa says.

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